Playing with Marco Polo
by Ellis97
Summary: Mr. Peabody and Sherman travel to the thirteenth century to meet Marco Polo and help him introduce his new dish; spaghetti and meatballs to the Chinese emperor. Unfortunately, the duo refuse to eat each other's dishes. Now, Mr. Peabody must convince them to have an open mind or the life of pasta could be in danger.


**Author's Note:**

 **Well folks, just when you thought you couldn't get another time paradox, Mr. Peabody and Sherman return for another adventure in time. So without further ado, time for another improbable adventure.**

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"Greetings everyone" said Mr. Peabody "Peabody and Sherman here for another adventure in time travel"

"Where we going to today, Mr. Peabody?" Sherman asked as he set the WABAC controls.

"Today we shall visit that merchant traveler best known as, Marco Polo" said Mr. Peabody.

Sherman set the WABAC machine to the year, 1271 and we entered the door. Of course, the WABAC responded beautifully and there we were in Venice, Italy, the land of the gondolas and the river.

"Here we are, my dear boy" said Peabody "Venice, Italy in its heyday"

"But where's Marco Polo?" asked Sherman.

"Right about there" Peabody pointed to a man carrying some sort of sack "Let's go see him"

Wasting no time, we walked right over to Marco Polo just as he was about to aboard his ship.

"Excuse me, Mr. Polo?" Sherman tapped on Marco's shoulder.

"Who are a-you?" asked Marco.

"Greetings Mr. Polo" said Mr. Peabody "My name is Mr. Peabody and this is my boy, Sherman"

"Pleased to meet you, sir" Sherman shook Marco's hand.

"I'd love to stay and talk, but I'm going to China to see the emperor and offer him some of our delicacies" said Marco Polo.

"What have you made for him?" asked Mr. Peabody.

"I made him something I like to call, spaghetti and meatballs" said Marco "I made it with pasta that China imported from their land and our country's meatballs and marinara sauce"

"That sounds pretty fantastic" Sherman remarked.

"Indeed" Marco nodded "I'm going to make my mark on the relationship between my people and the Emperor's"

"Do you mind if we come with you?" asked Sherman "I mean, we can help you get the emperor to accept your offering"

"Why not?" Marco Polo shrugged "I mean I could use some travel agents"

We hopped on aboard to the ship and after a day of traveling across the sea and a few seasickness, we finally reached China.

"Here we are boys" said Marco Polo "The land of China, where the emperor is"

"Golly" Sherman said as he looked at the palace "That palace looks pretty fantastic"

"Indeed Sherman" Peabody nodded "It does"

We walked to the palace front door and knocked on it. Just then, some men in Chinese shirts came to us.

"你们是谁，你们为什么在这里？(Who are you and why are you here?)" asked one of the servants.

"What is he saying, Mr. Peabody?" asked Sherman.

"I believe he is asking who we are and what we're doing here" said Mr. Peabody "Allow me to talk to him, I speak Chinese"

I walked up to the man and we had a conversation in Chinese and he lead us to the emperor's thrown room, where he and his family were eating some noodles.

"Excuse me, are you the Emperor of this land?" asked Marco Polo.

"Why yes, yes I am" said the Emperor "Who are you?"

"My name is Marco Polo and these are my associates; Mr. Peabody and Sherman" said Marco "I am a traveling merchant from Italy and I have come to offer you something from my people"

"An offering? What is it?" asked the Emperor.

Marco reached into his merchant sack and took out both a container of hot noodles, a container of meatballs and a container of red sauce. Then, he grabbed a plate and started to make his dish; he placed the noodles on a plate, spread the sauce

"Presenting, spaghetti and meatballs!" Marco introduced the new dish "An import from my country"

"Doesn't look like much" said the Emperor "How do I know you're not trying to poison me with this foreign food?"

"Trust me, it's not poison" said Marco "I assure you, this dish is tasty"

"Very well then" said the Emperor "Why don't we think of something?"

"Like what?" asked Marco.

"I have an idea" said Sherman "Why don't we have a dinner with dishes from both of our lands and that way, we can see how both of our land's dishes taste"

"That's not a bad idea, young bespectacled one" said the Emperor "At sundown tonight, we shall have a feast to see how each other's dishes taste. If this spaghetti dish is as great as you say it is, I shall put in a good word for you"

"Sweet" said Marco Polo "I'm sure this won't let you down"

"It had better" said the Emperor.

Later that night, we had arrived at the Emperor's dining room for feasting. We all sat down in rows, ready to taste the wonderful delicacies.

"Okay everyone" said Peabody "Time to eat"

While Sherman and I consumed some fine ethnic cuisine, Marco Polo and the Emperor had been reluctant to eat what they were served. The Emperor was served the spaghetti and Marco Polo was served some Chinese noodles. However, the two were reluctant to eat them.

"Is something wrong, my lord? Marco?" asked Peabody.

"I don't know if I can eat this stuff" said Marco "I mean, look at them. I haven't tried plain noodles before, much less them being made Chinese style"

"Indeed" the Emperor nodded "And this spaghetti and meatball stuff is so different and from another land. I mean it's topped with balls of meat and some kind of red sauce, I don't know if I'll like it"

It had occurred to me that the two weren't too keen on eating the cuisine from different lands, so I stepped in and decided to convince them otherwise.

"Mr. Polo, your Majesty" Peabody cleared his throat "I'm sure if you two try your respective dishes, you'll like them"

"Forget it, Peabody!" Marco refused "I am not eating those Chinese noodles"

"Same here" said the Emperor "And I am not eating this ball of meat with red stuff on it"

Peabody cleared his throat "Just so you know, Mr. Polo, pasta was created in Asia, so you wouldn't really have lasagna or any of your fine pasta-based cuisine if you guys didn't know"

"It was?" asked Marco.

"Indeed" Peabody nodded "It was brought to Italy from China not too long ago"

"Is this for real?" Marco asked the Emperor.

"Of course" the Emperor nodded "Etruscan civilizations made pasta by grinding several cereals and grains and then mixed them with water, a blend that was later on cooked producing this tasty and nutritious food product"

"And I have a distinct feeling that other cultures such as the Greek will find more uses for this pasta dish" Peabody added "So if your people can find uses for this wheat and cereal based product, other people can too. That's why you need to try these dishes, for the sake of the pasta's future as a delicacy"

The Emperor and Mr. Polo looked at each and finally made up their minds "Okay, we'll try the dishes"

"Atta boy" Peabody gave a thumbs up "Now go sink your taste buds into that pasta"

The Emperor twirled the spaghetti with fork and started to eat it and Mr. Polo decided to do the same with his chopsticks.

"I say, this isn't so bad" said the Emperor "This is zesty, but messy at the same time. I like it"

"Yeah" Mr. Polo said as he slurped his noodles "Plain noodles aren't so bad. They may not have anything on em, but they're pretty good. Still could use something on them like vegetables or meat"

Then, the Emperor picked up a meatball with his fork and ate it like so and found out he was enjoying it as well.

"Mr. Polo, this is one of the most exquisite dishes I've had" said the Emperor "How would you like to become my royal importer?"

"Me?" asked Mr. Polo "Sure! I'd love to come back here and show you more dishes of our country real soon"

"We did it, Mr. Peabody" Sherman exclaimed "We made a strong bond between Mr. Polo and the Emperor. Not to mention we saved spaghetti"

"Indeed Sherman" said Mr. Peabody "I say we used our noodle"

 **THE END**

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 **Author's Note:**

 **I hope you enjoyed this wonderful WABAC adventure, because there's another one coming real soon.**


End file.
